Week 14: November 27th - December 1st

Week 14: November 27th - December 1st

Reminders:12/5 - Toys for Tots Please send a new and unwrapped gift to donate.  Children will get a chance to drop their toy with local firefighters and Santa Claus.  


December 8- HCE Spelling Bee.  We wish out third grade classroom winners luck as they compete against winners from the 4th and 5th grade classes.

12/15 - Noon Dismissal for Winter Break

READING: We will spend the week reviewing the concepts we have been working on for the past few weeks: fictional story elements, character development, character changes and theme.  We will look at how this type of reading and thinking shows up in selections students will see on STAAR. Knowing how to apply these skills in our guided reading and independent reading is key to developing a love and understanding of literature.  Taking a step back and analyzing how they can be worded and displayed in testing is also important for our smart readers to understand.

WRITING: We will finish up our study on Author's Craft.  Students have looked at a variety of mentor texts and tried their hand at a number of concepts: repetition, onomatopoeia, metaphor, dialogue, font style, punctuation, and using our sense to add descriptive details.  Writer's will use this week to choose a piece to take through publication.  We will then work through our first official revision process.   We are excited for the many stories from our lives that will soon be published and archived for the world to read.

WORD WORK:  Students have been working with their guided reading teacher to tackle words that are developmentally appropriate for where they are writing and reading.  Keep your eye out for emails from you child's guided reading teacher to know when test and application grades are coming.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  Having just finished time off for celebration, we will focus our work this week learning about the many different Cultural Celebrations that Texans observe.  Students will complete their 2nd 9 weeks Social Studies Project by choosing the celebration that they find most interesting and planning an imaginary event to honor the occasion.  Remember that Social Studies Weekly is always available to students at home.  Log in information can be found in your students green binder.  Information can also be found in the Social Studies Website Resources on the right hand side of the blog.

Math: During our math time this week, we will be wrapping up our unit on graphing. We will pair up and spend Monday and Tuesday creating each type of graph that we learned about last week using data that came from a survey given to other third grade students. Each class will get to pair up with another class to get a larger set of data. On Wednesday, we will review each type of graph for the last time during our unit. The rest of the week, we will begin our next unit on geometry. We will be working to identify 2D shapes. We will identify sides and vertices on these polygons. This week, we will have our usual homework on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Our fast facts quiz will be on Friday.

Science: On Monday, your child will create vocabulary cards for the energy unit. The review sheet and vocabulary cards are given in preparation of the energy test. The date of test is undetermined at this time as we have not completed the unit yet. On Tuesday through Thursday, we will learn about light energy. We will learn about the sources and uses of light energy. On Friday, we will move onto sound energy.  We will ask ourselves questions about how sound is made and how it travels. With sound energy, we will also discuss pitch and volume.

Week 30: April 3- 7

Week of April 3rd-7th

Reminders: 

OPTIONAL SPRING CONFERENCES: Thursday and Friday we will have early dismissal for spring parent teacher conference. These conferences are optional. Please note that these conferences our optional and its only the second week of the last nine weeks. But if you would like to meet with your child's teacher to discuss your child's progress, we would be more than happy to meet with you. 

Ms. Badrak

Mrs. Duncan

Mrs. Ford

Ms. Jackson

Ms. Rozzell

Mrs. Scott

Here is our half day schedule for Thursday and Friday. 
    Thursday:                                                               Friday
7:50- 8:00 Focus Poetry                                 7: 50- 8:00 Focus Poetry
8:10- 9:25 Block One                                      8:10 - 9:00 Specials
9:25 Switch                                                     9:00- 9:50 Block one
9:30- 10:45 Block two                                     9:55- 10:45 Block two
10:45- 11:15 Lunch                                        10: 45-11: 15 Lunch
11:15- 11: 45 Recess                                     11:15- 11: 45 Recess
12:00 Dismissal                                              12:00 Dismissal                    

Language Arts teachers will send home a Scholastic book order this week in Tuesday Newsday.  This order will be due next Tuesday, April 11th. 

Reading 
Last week, we ended our week utilizing useful reading strategies.  We will use what we learned about nonfiction summaries last week to compare and analyze the characteristics of fiction and nonfiction summaries this week.  For instance, great nonfiction summaries include the main idea, or most important ideas, from the beginning, middle, and end of a text.  Great fiction summaries, on the other hand, include CPR (C=Characters, P=Problem, R=Resolution).  We will compare various summaries in order to continue practicing reading strategies across these two genres. Towards the end of the week, our readers will write a fiction summary of their own using what they know about CPR.  

Writing
We have worked very hard during Writer's Workshop to craft our essays.  We will use this week as an opportunity to prepare our essays for publishing week.  We will enter into the process of publishing week next week in order to celebrate and share our final products. We are also going to take some time this week to prepare for National Library Week (April 9th-15th)  where we thank our wonderful librarian, Mrs. Moore, for everything she does for our school!  Students will either write a poem, letter, comic, or persuasive essay that pays tribute to Mrs. Moore.  We are going to deliver these to her on Monday!   

Spelling
Students will receive new spelling words on Thursday, April 6th.  They will take a test on these words on Thursday, April 13th.   April 14th- April 21st, teachers will be looking for students to apply those spelling patterns correctly in their reading and writing work.

Social Studies
We will continue our study of arts and culture this week.  We will learn information about arts within a community.  We will reflect and respond to this material using graphic organizers.  

Math 

We finished off last week discussing area of figures. This next week, we will introduce perimeter of a figure. Area and perimeter can often get mixed up, so please take time to discuss both of these vocabulary words. Please take some time this week and get on Dreambox. Please use this link to get the login page. https://play.dreambox.com/login/yf4j/c78d

In this perimeter unit, we will also look at problem solving for missing side length of figures. We will be working on using good strategies when trying to solve these type problems. One of these strategies will be to add up all the side lengths and then subtract from the perimeter.  We studied in our geometry unit about how rectangles have opposite sides that are equal to the other. This knowledge of rectangles will help students find the missing side length when perimeter is unknown.




Science
We will start this week with the solar system assessment. Tuesday - Friday we will explore the fourth planet from the Sun... Mars. We will look at what attributes this planet has and how it differs from other planets in our solar system. After we discuss Mars and review solar system  characteristics, we will have a short quiz on Thursday.  Please keep practicing with your child the order of the planets and have your child share their learning about Mars this week. 

Week 29: March 27-31

Week of March 27

Reminders:

4th and 5th grade students will take the STAAR tests 3/28 and 3/29.

We will have a change of schedule to support a quiet test environment.  

The third grade schedule for those two days is:

8:00-10:20 Block One

10:20-12:35 Block Two

12:40-1:10 Lunch

1:15-2:05 Specials

2:05-2:40 Recess

2:40-3:00 Read Aloud

OPTIONAL SPRING CONFERENCES: We have noon dismissal on April 6 & 7 so that teachers have an opportunity to have an optional spring parent conference with parents who are concerned about their child's progress this year. There will not be any new testing information to share at this conference. It is only the 2nd week of the last nine weeks so there will not be many grades to review either. Teachers are happy to meet with parents who have questions or concerns about their child's progress.  

If you would like to schedule a conference during this early dismissal time, please sign up...

Ms. Badrak

Mrs. Duncan

Mrs. Ford

Ms. Jackson

Ms. Rozzell

Mrs. Scott

Reading: We will start the week with some strategy work in Reading.  When reading for tests, readers have to read with a difference purpose and lens.  We will discuss strategies test takers use when determining the best summary for a non-fiction selection. We will then review ways that test takers analyze poetry.  Finally, we will finish the week with a reading checkpoint to see how students apply reading strategies reviewed this week and the weeks since we took the practice STAAR. 

Writing:Writing is a process that can't be rushed.  As one of our WITS writers said, "You're never really finished; you just have a deadline."  We've worked hard in class to transform our essays from outlines to full paragraphs.  Students have learned about various ways to start or lead a read into their essays.  We will continue to work on revising and editing techniques this week as we prepare to finalize our essays to be audience ready.

Spelling:Students received new spelling words on Thursday, March 23.  They will take a test on these words on Thursday, March 30.  Teachers will then look for them to apply them correctly to their responses in reading and writing and an application grade will be taken between Friday, March 31 and Wednesday, April 5.

Social Studies:Over the next few weeks in Social Studies, we will focus on the importance of writers and artists to the cultural heritage of our communities.  Students will learn about the life and work of Maya Angelou, Larry McMurtry, Tommy dePaola and Mark Twain.

Math: During our math time this week, we will wrap up our learning on 2D and 3D shapes. We will construct a 3D shape in class and identify the shape based on its characteristics. On Wednesday, your child will take a 2D Quiz. This quiz will review the 2D shapes found on the yellow paper in your child's binder as well as the pink flash cards that went home last week. They will be asked to name each shape. In preparation for our quiz, we will also review these shapes in class. On Thursday and Friday, we will discuss area. We worked on area during our multiplication unit so this will be a quick review of the concept. We will have more graphing homework this week on Monday and Tuesday as well as fraction homework on Wednesday. We will continue with our fast facts quiz on Friday. 

Science:On Friday (March 24th), your child came home with a Solar System review sheet and vocabulary cards. The solar system test will be on Monday, April 3rd. During our science time this week, we will discuss the relationship between the sun, Earth, and moon. We will notice the limitations of the models of the solar system that we see. On Wednesday, we will learn the order of the planets. In groups, your child will make a mnemonic device to help them remember the order of the planets. On Thursday, we will create planet bracelets. These bracelets will have beads that represent each of the planets. To end our week, we will review for the solar system test playing our Jeopardy game.